Mayflower weather vane, Liberty Store (London, 1924)

The Liberty department store on Great Marlborough Street, today Grade II* listed, opened in 1924.

After the First World War there was often a desire, despite a growing enthusiasm for Modernism in some quarters, to return to the stability of ‘traditional’ values. In architecture, as in other areas of life, this manifested itself in a stylistic enthusiasm for the ‘old world’ – even if this could leave more highbrow critics feeling frustrated. Built in an eclectic ‘mock Tudor’ style, the Liberty store was no exception – the famous critic Nikolaus Pevsner was scathing about the scale, symmetry and proximity to a classical façade nearby.

Perched on top of the building is a 4-foot high Mayflower weather vane in gilded copper. Given the recent 300^th anniversary of the voyage in 1920, and the increasing fashion for American culture, the Mayflower would at that time been a recognisable symbol to shoppers. Ironically, the timber for the building also came from two ships (HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable) that had recently reached the end of their lives – mimicking, in a way, the folkloric ‘discovery’ of the timbers of the Mayflower in a barn in Buckinghamshire just four or five years previous.

See Ann E.M. Lewis, "Liberty's Tudor Shop", a dissertation on the architectural design and alterations with a comparison with the designs of other West End Stores (1975).